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Week in Review - 3/11/17

March 11, 2017

This Week In Review – Saturday, 3/11/2017

This was a big week in national and Washington politics – but we’ll help you stay up to date on what’s going on, and what you can do to help out and advance the cause of progressive policies and politics.

1. Big Win For Education

Students, parents, and teachers across Washington state can rest a little easier – this Wednesday, the Senate finally voted on the “levy cliff” legislation that prevents hundreds of millions of dollars in school funding cuts next year!

While Democrats in the House had passed the levy cliff bill weeks ago, Republicans in the Senate refused to allow a vote. But we didn’t give up – Senate Democrats kept pushing for a vote, and thousands of people across the state made phone calls and sent emails to their legislature, and on Wednesday, the Republicans cracked.

This is a huge win for schools and students, who can budget for next year confident that they won’t have their funding cut. It also shows the power of grassroots advocacy – when people like us stand up and act, it can and will make a difference.

Thank you so much to everyone who took action with us on this critical issue!

2. Republicans On Health Care

The Republicans released their proposal for repealing the Affordable Care Act this week, and it’s not going well for them.

Nonpartisan health groups are coming out of the woodwork to oppose the bill and point out that it would take away health care coverage, raise costs, cut essential benefits, and leave nearly all Americans worse off:

We can’t think of anything that makes the Republicans’ priorities more clear than this. They want to take health care away from the sick and raise costs for seniors so that they can give insurance CEOs a tax break. That’s offensive and wrong.

3. Trump’s Attacks On U.S. Attorneys

It’s just been announced that Trump and his Attorney General Jeff Sessions are demanding the resignation of dozens of U.S. Attorneys. U.S. Attorneys are our nation’s independent federal prosecutors, and they play an important role holding the rest of our government accountable to our laws.

And in more evidence that Trump parrots whatever he sees on cable news, the New York Times reported that the calls “came less than 24 hours after Sean Hannity, the Fox News commentator who often speaks with Mr. Trump, called for a “purge” of Obama appointees at the Justice Department on his show.”

Call Reichert’s office and let him know that Washingtonians expect Congress to expand health care coverage, not cut it! The ACA is the most popular it has been in years, it’s provided health care to 750,000 people in our state, and Republicans are going in the wrong direction.

2. Add Your Name To Our Health Care Petition

We’re collecting a petition of names people across our state who want to see health care preserved. If you’ve already contacted the office of Congressman Reichert or taken another action, the next step is to add your name to our petition telling Republicans in Congress: Hands off our healthcare!Or forward this email to a friend, and encourage them to add their name as well. Not only can we report to Congress how many thousands of people are signing these petitions, but we can rally our grassroots base around this important issue.

If you’ve already signed up for the DEM club, send this link or forward this email to a friend and encourage them to join us! This is the most important thing we can do to build our Party and the progressive movement.